PORT TOWNSEND — North Olympic Peninsula residents are told to duck and take cover during an earthquake drill set Thursday.
The drill is scheduled to begin at 10:18 a.m. Thursday.
All Hazard Alert Broadcast — or AHAB — sirens will emit a test warning message that will be followed by 180 seconds of a wail tone.
In Clallam County, sirens to be tested are positioned in LaPush, Neah Bay, Clallam Bay, Lower Elwha, west Port Angeles, Dungeness and Diamond Point.
All Jefferson County sirens are in Port Townsend — at Point Hudson, Fort Worden and the Boat Haven.
In the 1960s, grade-school students learned to “duck and cover” in response to a nuclear attack, and now their grandchildren throughout the state are learning the same technique in case an earthquake occurs.
At Grant Street Elementary in Port Townsend, for instance, students have practiced what they need to do when the siren sounds: crawl under desks and hunch over until the danger has passed.
Grant Street teachers used the opportunity to explain why earthquakes occur and what happens when tectonic plates shift.
Research has shown that major subduction earthquakes, such as the 2011 temblor in Japan, have shaken western Oregon and Washington once every 300 to 600 years on average.
The last quake from the Cascadia Subduction Zone, a plate boundary about 75 miles off the coast of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and Northern California, was in 1700, and Bill Steele, a member of the seismology lab at the University of Washington in Seattle, has said there’s a 15 percent chance the next one will occur in 50 to 60 years.
Emergency personnel in Clallam and Jefferson counties are participating in the drill, which will involve 660,000 people in Washington that have registered to participate in the event.
Schools, businesses and government agencies also are taking the opportunity to participate in the drill and determine what they will do in case of an earthquake.
“We sound the big alarm about once a year,” said Jefferson County Department of Emergency Management Director Bob Hamlin.
“It gives people a chance to talk about what they will need to do when there is an earthquake.”
Hollie Kaufman, director of emergency management for the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, said people need to assume the duck-and-cover position until the alarm stops.
Kaufman said families should make plans about what to do after an earthquake, where to meet and how to communicate if cellphones are no longer working.
She recommended that a seven-day supply of needed medications be stored in case of an emergency.
Store medication
“If someone has diabetes or high blood pressure, it’s important they have enough medication to get them through the crisis,” she said.
“If you are diabetic, you need to make sure that you have enough needles.”
Hamlin said everyone near the waterfront will be able to hear the siren clearly, while those inland and indoors may not notice as much.
Best photograph
Clallam County Director of Emergency Management Director Jamye Wisecup said her department is running a contest among courthouse employees for the best duck-and-cover shot.
During the exercise, government employees are asked to take pictures of themselves in position and submit them to the state.
The best-prepared duck-and-cover will win a prize, Wisecup said.
“We just thought we’d add a little fun to this,” she said.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
